About Me
The Young Gunz, composed of Young Chris (born Christopher F. Ries) & Young Neef aka Neef Buck (born Haneef Muhammad), is a Rap duo from Nicetown on the northside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are former members of Beanie Sigel's State Property collective and are currently signed to the Roc-A-Fella Records label. Young Gunz' debut single, "Can't Stop, Won't Stop", was one of the top 20 on the Billboard charts of 2003.While growing up in the poverty stricken neighborhood that is Nicetown, Philadelphia, Haneef "Neef" Muhammad & Christopher "Young Chris" Ries made a promise to their mothers that they would some day "get them out the hood." To achieve this goal, Chris & Neef apparently decided to sell market illegal drugs and narcotics. However, Neef, was inspired by rap music and started to write rap lyrics and perform at the lunch table during middle school. He later encouraged his childhood friend, Chris (who, according to many critics and even Neef himself, would ironically become a better rapper), to stop selling drugs and form a rap group with him. By high school the pair would have a manager and the interest of major rap labels. This experience soon led to a record deal with the world-famous, industry-dominating Roc-A-Fella records. These events were eventually detailed in the title track to the group's debut album Tough Luv.
The duo signed with Roc-A-Fella in the summer of 2000 and immediately started recording with their labelmates, though an album never manifested itself. The first appearance of either member on a mainstream record was on the track "1-900-Hustler" from Jay-Z's multi-platinum album, The Dynasty: Roc la Familia (2000- ). Though he didn't rap, Young Chris introduced himself during a skit on the song. And later, on Jay-Z's next effort The Blueprint, the Young Gunz, who where simply called "Chris & Neef" at the time, got a high-profile shoutout from him on the vicious diss track, "The Takeover" & and also another song on the album called "All I Need". This would cause some speculation and interst to who they were. During this period, Chris and Haneef continued to sell drugs, because of the neglect and small amount of work they were receiving from their label. The duo first rapped on and made a few guest appearances on the State Property soundtrack album as well as making small cameos in the movie it self. Also during this period of their career, Young Chris would carry the weight of the group appearing throughout Dame Dash's Dream Team compilation & Beanie Sigel's The Reason. This would cause a slight rift between the two but they were eventually able to settle it and even record a song about it, releasing their emotions on the aforementioned "Tough Luv". In turn, this altercation made them closer instead of tearing them apart. Neef soon realized his mistake and the pair began to stop selling drugs (permanently) accept all the guest appearances they could attain, appearing on the second installment of Jay-Z's Blueprint album, Freeway's Philadelphia Freeway, State Property's Chain Gang, Vol.2, and Memphis Bleek's M.A.D.E. all while recording their album. The Young Gunz scored their first hit single "Can't Stop, Won't Stop", the lead-off single from the Chain Gang album. The song and it's video received major airplay on the MTV2 and BET networks and radio.
The guest appearances would be an enormus help to album sales as evidenced in the numbers the album put up during the first week and chart postitoning eventually. The album itself boasted features and production from the likes of artists and producers such as Jay-Z, Scott Storch, Just Blaze, Beanie Sigel, members of The Diplomats, Bink!, Chingy & others. Chris & Neef scored moderate success with the remix to "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" which features a guest appearance by St. Louis rapper, Chingy. The duo followed up with the hit record "No Better Love", featuring former Roc-A-Fella Records crooner Rell. Unfortunately, the duo failed to gain as much success with their Just Blaze produced "Friday Night". The album received rave reviews and a 3.5 rating from the Source magazine. After a brief hiatus, the duo returned with Swizz Beatz produced "Set It Off" from their second album, Brothers from Another. This album was somewhat of a disappointment compared to the first despite the decent exposure of the lead single, promotion from Jay- himself, TV, radio & magazine appearances, and features from Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, Daz Dillnger, Slim of 112 (Marvin Scandrick III) and John Legend on the album.Young Chris will be releasing a solo LP in 2007.
